Baseball Rankings Roundup

MY THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS WEEK:

That was quite the weekend for Texas Tech Baseball! The Red Raiders came back from down 9-3 to force extra innings against the Baylor Bears on Thursday. John McMillon turned in four great innings in relief that allowed the Red Raiders to fight there way back into the game. Ultimately Cameron Warren, the tying run, was stranded on second base in the 11th inning but the Red Raiders showed serious grit in clawing their way back with strong performances by multiple guys including Cody Masters with a 2-run home run. Tech dug deep into the Baylor bullpen depleting their pitching early in the series setting themselves up for the opportunity to get the series win over the next two.

Tech came back to win in walk-off fashion with Cody Masters going 2 for 2 in a late pinch-hitting situation and hitting a bases-loaded, two-out, RBI single to win it for the Red Raiders on Friday. Micah Dallas turned in 6 quality innings followed by 3 more from Taylor Floyd and the Red Raiders once again showed focus and determination to plate the tying run in the 8th with an RBI walk drawn by Gabe Holt.

Texas Tech stormed the Bears on Sunday, run-ruling them 13-3 after 7 innings. Gabe Holt started the day with a leadoff double to left field after sending an opposite-field home run foul. The hitting didn’t stop for the Red Raiders as you saw home runs from Cameron Warren, Braxton Fulford, and two from Dylan Neuse including his second grand slam of the season.

With the series wins Tech knocked Baylor out of the Big 12 lead and booked their first marquee series victory of the season. The Red Raiders will host the new Big 12 leader the Oklahoma State Cowboys this weekend after the two-game midweek was dropped down to Tuesday only against the New Mexico Lobos at home in Lubbock. Tech is still squarely in the conversation for hosting a regional but they need to continue working and winning to rise back up to for the opportunity to grab one of the Top 8 National Seeds when the time comes. They have 11 of their final 14 games at home only traveling to Norman to face the Sooners the rest of the way.

A few things about the rankings:

DO THEY ALL MATTER?

No, absolutely not, most of them are worthless and only exist because a baseball/statistics nerd decided to make them. Some are an attempt by various outlets to keep RPI live rather than updated weekly by the NCAA. Many are wholly subjective in the case of those from various news outlets or composites of many rankings affected by outliers. Some also update at odd times, like on Friday.

DOES THAT MEAN I WON’T INCLUDE THEM?

Also, absolutely not. I’m going to include every ranking, RPI, composite, and strength of schedule I can find. It doesn’t matter how “legit” they are, I’m going to put them on the list. I like seeing them change and move fluidly over time. It’s also nice to see that even some of the top recognized lists are subject to knee-jerk reactions.